Scale of Russia-US cooperation in Afghanistan

[Chris Doss]

MSNBC.com
New Russia-U.S. war ties revealed
Cooperation in Afghanistan extends deeper than thought
By Michael Moran and Robert Windrem

      NEW YORK, Oct. 31 —  In an unprecedented sign of the growing
anti-terrorist alliance between the United States and Russia, MSNBC.com
learned Thursday that Moscow gave its consent for American ammunition and
other war supplies to pass through Russia by rail en route to the war in
Afghanistan.
       MILITARY DOCUMENTS obtained by MSNBC.com indicate that for months
now, huge shipments of American war materiel have been passing through
Russian territory by rail, from northern European ports in Murmansk and
Helsinki, and from the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok. Not since
World War II, when the United States and the Soviet Union allied to fight
Hitler’s Germany, has the American military had such a presence on Russian
soil.
       The documents, including PowerPoint maps from the U.S. military’s
Central Command that show main resupply routes for the Afghan campaign,
indicate Russian railroads have been used extensively to keep troops
supplied. The supplies appear to be destined for U.S. bases in former
Soviet parts of Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The
documents indicate that the shipments include ammunition, and probably
food, medical supplies and other equipment needed to sustain the 7,000
American soldiers in Afghanistan and several thousand more in neighboring
Central Asian states.
       Other main supply routes run through the Persian Gulf state of Oman,
through Pakistan and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
       The shipments, until now undisclosed by either government, also shed
new light on the complex horse-trading under way over the Iraq resolution
at the Security Council, where issues of international law and nuclear
proliferation are mingling with oil interests, national pride and the
desire of some Council members to exercise a check on unilateral American
action.
       Asked to comment on the shipments, Sgt. Charles Portman, a spokesman
for U.S. Central Command, said, “We leave it up to coalition companies to
discuss any participation” in the U.S.-led Afghan campaign. He referred
calls to the Russian Embassy, where several calls for comment went 
unanswered.

‘ANOTHER LEVEL’
       Dick Melanson, a professor of national security strategy at the
National War College in Washington, D.C., said that if Russia has been
helping ship American war supplies to the battle zone, “that takes the
relationship to another level.”
         Ties between Russia and the United States, former Cold War
enemies, warmed considerably in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin helped clear the way for U.S. forces to
use former Soviet bases in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and he
used his influence after the war to persuade the Russian-backed factions
within the Afghan Northern Alliance to support Hamid Karzai as their new
president.
       It was widely believed, however, that most of the Russian assistance
took place behind the scenes.
       “Apparently the Russian authorities don’t want to emphasize it,”
said Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, who noted that
Russian nationalists would seize upon the shipments in political attacks on
the Kremlin.

U.N. TALKS
       Experts also suggested that this kind of cooperation would be
considered an important Russian “chit” in the complex negotiations over a
new U.N. resolution on Iraq.
       “I think that probably makes the Bush administration’s efforts to
get a new Iraq resolution with teeth that much more difficult,” said
Melanson, who stressed that his was his own view and not that of the
military. “In some ways, the administration is paying the price for not
deciding whether the priority is defeating global terrorism, or unseating
Saddam Hussein. I can see where the Russians could exploit that.”
       An Arab diplomat attached to his nation’s U.N. delegation confirmed
this: “There is more going on than meets the eye between them,” the
diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Oil, geopolitical
considerations, and especially their mutual interest in fighting what they
call terrorism.”
       Felgenhauer described the Afghan campaign as an area of particular
agreement: “The Russians are apparently ready to help, because the al-Qaida
and Taliban remnants in Afghanistan remain common enemy,” he said.
       Russia, along with France, has been reluctant to allow approval of a
new resolution on Iraq that would allow the United States to use military
force against Baghdad without further consultation at the Security Council
should Baghdad fail to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. The United
States accuses Iraq’s regime of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons and
stockpiling chemical and biological weapons in defiance of pledges it made
at the end of the Gulf War in 1991 and U.N. resolutions passed since then.

REMOTE REGION
       Securing Russia’s cooperation ahead of last October’s conflict in
landlocked Afghanistan was considered a major breakthrough by the Bush
administration, which prior to Sept. 11, 2001, had been on shaky footing
with Moscow.
       Locating reliable supply lines for American troops operating in
northern Afghanistan, in particular, had been a major concern of American
military planners. Operations in the southern part of the country are
supplied largely through Pakistan. But in the mountainous north, air supply
would be prohibitively expensive.
       “It’s cheaper to use rail than to take it all by air, so it makes
sense,” said Felgenhauer, the Russian military analyst. “Russia can offer a
united rail network, left over from the Soviet Union,” that still joins
far-flung ports in Vladivostok and Murmansk to the now independent states
of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, which have become important garrisons for
American operations inside Afghanistan.
       MSNBC.com’s Preston Mendenhall in London contributed to this report.



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